


Heathens (twenty øne piløts)

by PierceTheAllTimeBlackParade



Category: Suicide Squad - Fandom, Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Death, Heathens, Other, Schizophrenia, mentally insane, tøp - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-14
Updated: 2016-12-30
Packaged: 2018-09-08 13:20:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 3,320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8846620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PierceTheAllTimeBlackParade/pseuds/PierceTheAllTimeBlackParade
Summary: Tyler Joseph has been put into a prison/mental confinement, because he supposedly killed his best friend- Josh Dun. Tyler, you see, is schizophrenic. He sees Josh there with him, and he hears Josh's voice, but everyone else claims that Josh isn't there...





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fanfic I've written by myself, and my first fanfic on this website.

"I'm telling you the truth! I didn't kill Josh! He isn't dead!" Tyler screamed as he was dragged down the halls to his new cell.

"Tell that to the body they found in your room." one of the prison guards said, tightening his grip on the boy's arm. Tyler struggled to get out of the men's grasps, planting his feet to the ground and pulling back, but the men were too strong. They simply dragged him along behind.

They made it to a cell, and on guard opened it and the other shoved Tyler in, and shut the door.

Tyler ran over and gripped the bars. "I'm telling you the truth!" he shouted as the first prison guard locked the cell.

"Sorry kid. I wish I could believe you, but there's too much evidence against you." the guard said as his partner walked away. He stood back and gave Tyler a sympathetic look. "You look too innocent for this, kid. You should've made better decisions." he said, then turned and walked away.

 

Tyler pressed his whole body up against the bars of the cell and screamed, "LET ME OUT OF HERE! JOSH ISN'T DEAD! I'M TELLING YOU THE TRUTH!"

When no one said anything, Tyler sniffed and sat down on the bad excuse for a bed hanging from the wall by hinges and two metal chains. He curled in on himself and started crying, wishing that Josh was there with him. Josh couldn't be dead, could he? There was no way that Tyler could have possibly killed his best friend!

After what seemed like hours of crying, which was actually a few minutes, Tyler sat up and wiped at his eyes. He stayed seated on the bed and stared at the floor.

 

"Tyler?"

 

Tyler looked up after hearing a familiar voice. He grinned and stood up and ran to the cell door. He gripped the bars. "Josh!" he exclaimed.

"Hey buddy. What're you doing in there?" Josh asked.

Tyler's grin suddenly disappeared, "They put me in here. They keep telling me that I killed you! I didn't kill you! You're right here!"

"Yeah. Yeah, I am. I'm always here with you, Tyler."

Josh wrapped his hands around the bars and smiled softly at the boy behind them. "I'm always here."

 

Josh nodded, "I know. I know. I can try and help you escape!"

Tyler smiled a little, looking hopeful. "You mean it?" he asked, and Josh nodded in response.

 

***

 

A few minutes later, a lot of the prisoners looked up from the activities they were doing in their cells and saw the new, 28 year old prisoner, wandering around. He was muttering something about murder and heathens and someone named Josh.

One prisoner, who was more like a guard, reached out of his cell and hit the big button on the wall, to alert the guards. When the alarm went off, Tyler was pulled out of his thoughts and he looked around, nervous.

 

Then there were the sounds of footsteps. When the guards reached Tyler, he was sitting on the floor, looking a little impatient. What no one else saw was that he was waiting for Josh to find out which way to go. The guards ran right through Josh, toward Tyler, their guns aimed at him. When they were sure he wouldn't hurt them, they heaved him up and started to drag him back to his cell. That was when Tyler started screaming for Josh. "JOSH!" he screamed, over and over!

Josh turned around and his eyes widened. He ran for Tyler and pulled on his arm. "Tyler!" he shouted. "TYLER!" he tried and tried to pull Tyler out of the guards' grip, but he couldn't. The guards pushed Tyler into a cell, and locked the door again.


	2. Chapter Two

Tyler had been in the prison/mental confinement for a few days now. He had drawn several pictures—mainly of Josh and Josh's eyes with the eye makeup around them.  
He had gotten out of his cell several times already, and had been threatened to have his head blown off. He, also, keeps seeing Josh... but no one else does. He simply tells himself—and Josh—that the people who claim to not see him are just trying to get him to think that he had killed him. He doesn't want to believe that! He doesn't want to believe a word they say! He keeps being taken out of his cell and asked questions—the same questions, over and over and over again—by cops and prison guards and people he believes works for the FBI or CIA.

One day, Tyler was in the middle of working on another drawing of Josh when a cop opened the cell door. Tyler knew what was going to happen. It had happened six times that week so far.  
"Okay, Joseph. Come on, you know the drill." the man said. Tyler silently stood up and walked out, then felt the barrel of a gun pressed between his shoulders. "Go on." said the man. Tyler started walking down the way he had gone the last few days.  
Just outside the door of the interrogation room, Josh appeared. "Ty, don't tell them anything. Please." he pleaded. Tyler bit his lip and nodded. And just like that, Josh disappeared. Tyler frowned; something was starting to click in his mind. But, he was pulled out of his thoughts because he was pushed through the doors of the interrogation room.   
Inside, a member of the FBI was waiting, sitting at one side of the table. "Take a seat, Mr. Joseph." he said. Tyler silently walked over and sat in the chair on the side of the table closest to him, and then he was handcuffed, his hands behind the chair, by the cop that had brought him to the room.  
The FBI agent stood up and started to walk around the room, and the cop exited the room.  
"I understand that this is the seventh time you've been questioned?" the agent asked. Tyler didn't say anything, but nodded.  
"Do you understand why you're here and why you're being interrogated?" the agent asked.

Tyler swallowed and said, "I keep getting told I- I killed Josh. I-I didn't kill him! I-I don't know why I'm–" He cut himself off, breathing heavily.  
The agent sat down and reached over the table. "Take deep breaths, kid. Deep. Breaths."  
Tyler nodded and took deep breaths, calming down.  
"You okay now?" the agent asked. Tyler nodded. "Alright. Now, you're being interrogated because you won't give us good enough answers." the agent said.  
Tyler nodded again, "Okay..."

"I want you to answer these questions for me, okay?" the agent continued, and Tyler nodded again.  
The agent started to pelt him with questions, and Tyler only responded with nods or by shaking his head. The agent was starting to get mad, Tyler could see that. The agent plopped down in his chair and put his head in his hands, and sighed. Then something in his mind clicked; he remembered something Tyler had reacted to several times. "One more question," he said, looking up at Tyler, "Does Josh ever disappear, just like that?"  
Tyler's eyes widened, "Ho-how did you-?!" He was then taken from his chair and dragged out of the room and back to his cell.


	3. Chapter 3

Tyler couldn't believe it.

When he was forced back into his cell, he didn't try and stop them. He was too shocked to do anything. The loud clang of the door shutting pulled him out of his trance.  
"He's _dead_..." he whispered, tears in his eyes. "My best friend is dead."  
Josh suddenly appeared next to him, "What did you say?" he asked, looking a little mad.  
Tyler ignored him and looked away, shaking his head, "No. Nonononono!" he whispered, "No."  
Josh put his hands on Tyler's shoulders, forcing him around to face him, and said slowly: "Tyler. What did you just say?"

Tyler shook his head again, "Not real. He's dead. He's _DEAD_!" Josh's eyes went wide and he released Tyler's shoulders and took a step back.  
"No. You can't say that. Ty, I'm _right here_!"  
Tyler glared up at him. "No. You're not," he marched up to Josh and jabbed a finger at the boy's chest. "You _aren't_ Josh! I know that now! Josh is _dead_!" he shouted.

The other murderers and rapists and just plain crazy people in the cells around Tyler's all looked up from what they were doing to watch the boy come to his senses... sort of. They all listened in on what was being shouted.

Tyler started crying, falling to his knees on the ground and curled in on himself. He now knew why no one had payed attention to Josh, and he now knew the reason for Josh's sudden appearances and disappearances. Josh wasn't real!  
"Josh isn't real. _Josh_ _isn't_ _real_ , _Tyler_." Tyler kept whispering to himself while Josh stood over him, looking horrified.  
"Tyler...?" Josh whispered. Tyler simply shook his head repeatedly.  
"No. No. No one said anything. No one is _saying_ anything. _Josh_ _is_ _dead_. You _killed_ _Josh_ , _Tyler_." Tyler said, his voice muffled by the fabric of his orange jumpsuit.  
"Ty, I'm right here!" he heard 'Josh' say. Tyler shook his head again.  
"No. Go away. You're _not_ Josh!" he said.

"I'm not going anywhere, because I _am_ Josh!" Josh said.  
Tyler shot up to a standing position and screamed at Josh, "YOU ARE _NOT_ JOSH! JOSH IS _DEAD_! BECAUSE _I COULDN'T_ _HELP IT_! THAT'S RIGHT, _I_ _KILLED_ _MY BEST_ _FRIEND_ BECAUSE _I_ COULDN'T HELP IT! I _WASN'T_ _MYSELF_!"

"Tyler, you're schizophrenia has just helped you confessed to the murder of Josh Dun. Thank you."

Tyler hadn't noticed that the cops, guards, and FBI agents had been coming for him until one of them had spoken up.

"Oh no..." he whispered to himself.  
"The Dun family will thank you, because of this confession. Not only them, but we thank you as well." the same man, who had spoken before, said.  
Tyler turned to face them, "No!" He ran to the cell door and shook the bars, "Let me out! It wasn't on purpose! Let me out," he screamed, "Please! I don't belong here!"  
"Too late. You already confessed, and if you deny it in the second trial, we have proof." the man pointed to the camera at the end of the hall.

"When- when's the second trial?" Tyler asked warily, already formulating a plan in his head.

"A week from now." the man said.

Tyler nodded and bit the inside of his jaw to keep from smiling. He knew how he could end up with his best friend again.


	4. Chapter 4

Over the next few days, Tyler had been a bit more aggressive with the guards and officers as they led him to the interrogation room to be questioned more about why he had murdered Josh.

Today, however, one of the guards had gotten a bit fed up with Tyler's actions and cocked his gun and aimed it at him. "If you keep acting this way, I'll blow your head off!" the man shouted. Tyler didn't say or do anything in response. He just let them take him back to his cell. Tyler kept glaring up at the guard of whom had pulled the gun on him. "I'll be with him soon." Tyler said suddenly.  
The guards glanced down at him. "What do you mean?" one asked him.

"I'll be with Josh soon." Tyler simply repeated, then wouldn't say anything further.  
The guards looked at each other warily, thoughts of what Tyler meant running wild in their minds. Tyler smiled to himself. He will be with his best friend soon.  
Josh appeared in front of the three. "Tyler," he said, "Don't do anything stupid!"  
Tyler acted like he hadn't heard him.  
"Tyler," Josh pleaded, "Don't make them kill you! It won't fix anything! I'm here as you guardian angel! God told me this!"  
"Shut up Joshua!" Tyler shouted, Josh getting on his last nerve.  
"Ty- Tyler. There's no one there." the first guard, now slightly scared of Tyler, said.  
"You just don't see him. He's claiming God has sent him to be my 'guardian angel.'" Tyler explained in a venomous voice.  
"Oh." the guard said in a quiet voice, barely over a whisper. Tyler nodded.  
"Come on. Are you taking me back to my cell or not? I want these last few days to go by quickly!" he said. The guards nodded and pulled him to his cell.

Once the cell door shut and locked, Tyler went over to his small stack of papers and crayons and he started drawing.  
He muttered the last song he and Josh had done together, "All my friends are heathens, take it slow..."  
Josh appeared and watched Tyler draw, sitting cross-legged on the 'bed.' Watching Tyler's plan go through was going to hurt him. The fact that Tyler doesn't believe that God had actually sent him down to be his guardian angel is hurting him enough already.  
 _Don't do this, TyJo. Please_ , Josh thought.


	5. Chapter 5

Today is the day. Today is the day Tyler is going to go through with his plan.   
He looked down at the plan, which was drawn out on sheets of printer paper and crayon, then he looked up at the drawings taped to the walls, of Josh and Josh's eyes, and his own wife Jenna.

Tyler took a deep breath; this is going to not only let him be with his best friend again, but it is also going to scare him to death. "You can do this Tyler," he whispered to himself, "You'll be with Josh soon enough. If you go through with this you'll be with Josh!"  
"Tyler, what are you doing?" Josh asked, suddenly sitting on the floor next to Tyler.   
Tyler sighed and looked at him, "I'm making a plan so I can be with the real Josh!"

"Tyler, I've told you before: I _am_ the real Josh! God _sent me_ to be your guardian angel and to make sure you don't do anything stupid."

"Just leave me be." Tyler said, sending Josh a venomous look; and as he looked away, he saw something on Josh's shoulder that hadn't been there when he had killed him. He recognized it as the symbol for guardian angels— an Angelic Rune. Something was starting to click in his busying brain, but it hadn't hit him yet.  
"Tyler, if you do this, you'll be hurting a lot of people– your parents, your grandparents, Jenna, me... think this through!" Josh begged.  
"I _have_ thought it through! It's the _only_ way for me to be with my best friend!" Tyler said, standing up and going to the pictures taped to the wall.  
Josh shook his head. "There's another way," he said, "Wait until you die of old age."

Tyler looked at him, and shook his head. "No. This is the only way. I'm not going to die in here of old age."  
The cell door opened and there in the doorway stood the officers.

"Alright, Joseph. Let's go to your trial." the one at the front said. Tyler nodded and looked at Josh, while hiding two drawings, he had taken from the wall and folded, in his hand.  
"It's the only way." he whispered to him. He walked to the officers, and let them take him down the hall.


	6. Chapter 6

Tyler walked between a few guards, then there were the officers in front and behind him. He was sandwiched. But he knew what he wanted to do!

They were halfway down the hall when he attacked an officer to his left, elbowing him in the ribs, hard, and then he did the same to the officer on his right, sending both crumpling to the ground groaning in pain. Now he had guns aimed at him.  
"Joseph, don't do this!" one of the armed officers said.  
Tyler simply shook his head in response and let out a, sort of, battlecry and charged at the officer who had warned him. He tackled him to the ground and then kicked out at another's legs, sending her to the ground.  
One of the officers still standing aimed her gun at the 28 year old, who was scrambling to his feet.

Suddenly, at the end of the hall, Josh stood. "Tyler!" he said, his eyes pleading. Tyler froze where he was, right between the officer and his guardian angel.  
"Josh." Tyler whispered, tears filling his eyes.  
"Don't do this! Just let them take you to court. You might end up back here, but I'll be here with you. I promise. I swear it!" Josh said, his eyes going wide in his puppy-eye way.  
"But you're not–" Tyler started, but got cut off by the sounds of guns cocking. He turned his head and saw that the officers he had knocked down were getting up and aiming their guns at him. The officer who had been aiming at him the whole time told the others to go, that she could handle him. They started to protest, but she told them to go, so they did.  
Tyler turned back to Josh, eyes begging him to help him in anyway possible.

—~—

"We found another body." Officer Wilkins said, running in and slamming a stack of photos and files on the table.  
"Who's body is it?" Officer Hensley asked, looking up from a file she had been reading.  
"It's Jenna Joseph, wife of–"  
"Wife of Tyler Joseph, the new guy." Hensley cut Wilkins off.  
"Do you think he did it?" she asked, looking up at Wilkins.  
Wilkins nodded, "We know he did it. His fingerprints and DNA are all over the scene. From the looks of it, she was dead before Dun."  
"Oh my God. He committed a double murder!" Hensley exclaimed, "We need to let the judge and officers know what they're dealing with!"

—~—

"Josh," Tyler pleaded, starting to cry, "You weren't the only one."

"What- what do you mean?" Josh asked, looking worried.  
"I- I killed Jenna." Tyler replied, tears streaming down his face.

"Oh Ty..." Josh whispered.

Suddenly, Tyler's foot slid, and there was a gunshot.


	7. Chapter 7 FINAL

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Get your tissues, everyone. Here's the end of this journey. I hope you've enjoyed your stay at the Heathens Inn.

_Suddenly, Tyler's foot slid, and there was a gunshot._

The officer, who had fired the gun, stared at Tyler while he looked down at the blood seeping through his shirt with wide eyes. "Oh no. What have I done?" she muttered, looking down at the gun in her hands.  
"Tyler!" Josh shouted, running toward his best friend, who fell to the ground. Tyler coughed and spit. Josh turned him over onto his back, so he could look down at his face. "Oh my gosh. No!" Josh cried, cupping Tyler's paling face in his hands.  
"J- Josh?" Tyler wheezed out.  
"I'm right here, I'm right here Tyler." Josh said, trying to stop the blood from coming out of the wound, now.  
"I'm really sorry for not believing you, and for killing you." Tyler apologized.  
"It okay, Tyler. I wouldn't believe me either." Josh admitted.

"I love you, Josh." Tyler said. Josh's head shot up and he cupped Tyler's face again, with bloody hands.  
"No! Don't talk like that! You're going to be fine!" Josh shouted at him, tears streaming down his face.  
Then... Tyler went limp, eyes wide open, mouth slightly open. Josh started crying, holding Tyler's body close. "No. No. I love you too, Tyler." he managed out in between sobs. Then slowly, he started to fade.

Tyler's body lay on the floor, blood seeping through his used-to-be-orange jumpsuit, and two bloody handprints on his cheeks. In his hand, two folded papers stay– one of his wife, Jenna. The other? Josh Dun hugging Tyler Joseph, Josh with a halo and wings.

Over the PA system of the prison, Officer Hensley's voice made a too-late announcement: " _Be careful when managing Tyler Joseph. He is the culprit of two murders. The murders of Joshua Dun, and Jenna Joseph_."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for reading. And a big thank you to my new friend @.lightsaviour, you've commented on ALMOST every chapter, and you've told me your thoughts about this book. Love you, dude.  
> Again, thank you all for reading.  
> ~xoerin


End file.
